Piggly Wiggly Closed at Midway Village
About two weeks ago the Piggly Wiggly grocery store closed at the Midway Village shopping center on Fairburn Road. Today the windows are lined with white sheets of paper, signs made with permanent marker saying the store is closed and to shop at the Piggly Wiggly in Villa Rica, and inside the store the cash terminals are quiet next to empty shelves and filtered sunlight.
The Piggly Wiggly served as the anchor for the shopping center, attracting customers to the area and providing business to the other smaller shops. Before Piggly Wiggly there was Save Rite and Winn-Dixie, all three grocery store chains that compete at the mid-level. Douglas County has faced shopping centers that have lost their anchor store, leaving many tenants struggling with the idea to stay or leave.
The impact of the widening of Highway 78, the Highway 92 Relocation Project, and the I-20 HOV Project will directly affect all businesses on Fairburn Road. Today I spoke with a few business owners at the Midway Village shopping center to understand their view.
The first business owner I talked to was Shane, the owner of Pool Genie, Inc and Sensational Tans, located near the corner of the shopping center. Shane had been at Midway Village for six years and was in Illinois two weeks ago when he heard that the Piggly Wiggly closed down. When asked about how has his business been effected, Shane replied, “Its time to move.”
The lease for Shane’s businesses was about to expire and the idea of relocating came at a “good time”, however for other businesses in the shopping center the decision to stay or relocate is a tougher choice. Lease expenses are likely to increase since Piggly Wiggly was no longer serving as the main source of revenue.
But the closure of Piggly Wiggly did not come as a surprise to the tenants considering that the past history of the shopping center has had different grocery stores. According to Shane the Piggly Wiggly’s business was slow prior to closing down.
“Once you lose your anchor store, you lose your bloodline,” said Shane in regards to a loss in business. With the parking lot being empty, people are more willing to second guess about driving into Midway Village because they are not aware if the whole shopping center or parts of it are closed. The local media has not reported on the closure and the Piggly Wiggly signs are still up, which adds to the confusion in the public’s mind.
Shane plans to keep his businesses, Pool Genie and Sensational Tans, on Fairburn Road by successfully moving across the street to the Fairburn Station shopping center where Ingles is located, with the prospect of the roadway construction in both directions will boost business. If the roadway projects were not occurring, Shane thought about moving to Hiram instead.
Next I talked to Daniel Garcia at the Diana’s Family Restaurant. Garcia said that since Piggly Wiggly left, his business has been affected greatly. It was lunchtime when I was talking to him and the restaurant was completely empty, but Garcia noted that it usually was busy at this time of day.
The restaurant had been there for two months and whenever supplies were needed, Garcia could run down to the Piggly Wiggly. “I used to shop at the Piggly Wiggly, but now I have to go to Ingles and it takes more time,” replied Garcia. Diana’s Family Restaurant plans on staying open at Midway Village as long as they can, waiting for another anchor to fill the void while surviving the decrease in business.
Lastly I briefly spoke to an active Charles Kim, owner of the dry cleaner at the tail-end of the shopping center, as he raced to the front door from hearing the bell chime. Kim said that business for him had not changed because of a “regular customer base”. The dry cleaners had been there for about 7-8 years, and Kim was in his third year running the business.
Douglasville has experienced how the loss of a major anchor store can affect small businesses and the survivability of a shopping center. When Wal-Mart relocated from Stewart Parkway to Highway 5, the impact became deafening as Cub Foods, Roberds and other stores had to face the reality of closing as well.
The same happened in the 1990s when the Kroger on Fairburn Road relocated across the street to Hospital Drive. For many years the shopping center was dormant with a few tenants, but now life is being regenerated as a CVS/pharmacy is being built in the parking lot next to Checker’s – interestingly enough both businesses are located in the displacement area of the Highway 92 Relocation Project.
The end result is that small businesses tend to suffer greatly by the loss of an anchor store. With much new commercial development throughout Douglas County, demographics are moving elsewhere by forcing retailers in one particular area, like the two mile strip of Chapel Hill Road, and leaving other storefronts to become more vacant and investors not wanting to occupy an old building when constructing a new one will cost the same, if not less.
Midway Village shopping center is owned by New Plan Excel and was built in 1989.
Call me a pessimist, but it looks like to me Douglas County is economically failing to catch up with the rest of the ATL. The county is basically dying economically, but still growing population-wise, with the influx of hispanic immigrants and blacks in search of a cheaper cost-of-living. Douglas County probably ranks as one of the top three counties in metro-Atlanta with having the least expensive housing (and being within 45 minutes of downtown Atlanta- at the same time). I don’t know what is “killing” Douglas County, and causing businesses to shy away. There is no “Steak-n-Shake”, there is no “Popeyes”, there is no more “Captain Ds” and there are only two Bank of Americas in Douglas County (one of the crowded Douglas Blvd. location and the other in the Kroger grocery store at Thornton Road). When you look at the housing demographics in Douglas County, it also seems like 50% of the county’s population reside in “throwaway homes”, houses that average below 10 years ago, and are built with shoddy materials, due to cheap labor. Face it, Douglas County is for losers!!!
February 20th, 2007 at 5:03 pmIf you don’t like DC, Move. The county isn’t dying, only regenerating in newer areas. It happens in ALL cities. The regeneration of an area such as Hwy 92 will take time. If you are old enough- or have even lived here long enough to recall, Hwy 5 and Douglas Blvd used to be the “sticks”, along with all the Chapel Hill area that does have the “nicer” homes…Not necessarily throwaway homes, but considering that todays homebuyer doesn’t have the common sense to know what HOME MAINTENANCE is, they might as well be. Builders don’t use shoddy materials because they have cheap labor- that is just because they are a cheap builder- You get what you pay for. And when you show me a framing crew that is of any othere origin willing to do the same work for the same pay, then I will discuss the cheap labor issue. It is simply supply and demand. Many hispanic framing crews vs. little or no non-hispanic framing crews. The non hispanic workers seem to think that they deserve more $ for the same work. Is that fair? If you were a businessman, and the crews were following the same blue-prints, who would YOU hire????
Hwy 92 is a cheaper area and is home to a large population of non-caucasian and below-your-standard-income residents. That doesn’t mean that those people will always be of that status, or that they don’t have good money to spend.
AND if what you judge a community by whether it offers Captain D’s, Popeyes, or Steak n Shake, I would wonder what you consider “high class”? Olive Garden? HAHAHAHAHAHAHA….
February 21st, 2007 at 8:08 amWere you able to speak with Charmaine’s? I’m curious as to what their response might have been. Beside the PW, they have a large footprint in Midway Village.
February 21st, 2007 at 8:50 amObi’s Sister,
I didn’t have a chance to talk to Charmaine’s, sorry about that.
February 21st, 2007 at 12:57 pmJennifer,
The bottom line is that if I had to rank the corridors in Douglas County, here is how I would do it:
1. Chapel Hill Road (it is kind of small, to be the County’s leading upper class corridor). I would compare it to Roswell Road (SR 120) in East Cobb County.
2. Douglas Boulevard (a nice, lengthy commerical corridor, with Arbor Place Mall, as its flagship, but no residential areas). I would compare it to the East-West Connector in East Cobb County.
3. Hospital Drive (a busy corridor under construction, with the Kroger Shopping Center, Douglas County Courthouse and Wellstar Douglas Hospital as its main employers). I would compare it to Northside Drive (US 41) in the City of Atlanta.
4. Highway 5 (a busy corridor, and main artery of western Douglas County, has commericial and rural features, yet more like a busy version of Fairburn Road). Corridor needs streetscape and beautification work, with improvements done to shopping areas.
5. Thornton Road (SR 6) (a busy regional commercial corridor, with wide lanes. This is what Fairburn Road will look like in the future and unfortunately it will be considered an upgrade). Thornton Road is primarily industrial/commercial. It has Kroger, Office Depot, Home Depot and Wal-Mart, but not the commercial savvy like Chapel Hill Road and Highway 5, for it still has poor-looking shopping areas and auto dealerships. I would compare Thornton Road to US41 in Bartow and north Cobb County.
6. Fairburn Road (SR 92) (a corridor that still looks rural, with a mixture of residences, commericial and industrial - the stores are second rate compared to the ones along Chapel Hill Road, Douglas Boulevard and Highway 5). As you go along Fairburn Road, past I-20 and toward Bankhead Highway, you could have sworn you were traveling along Martin Luther King Avenue in Adamsville (Northwest Atlanta). In other words, Fairburn Road - south of I-20 is rural (compared SR 6 in Paulding County, pass Hiram and towards Dallas) and Fairburn Road - north of I-20 is straight-up ghetto.
7. Bankhead Highway (US 78) and Dallas Highway (SR 92) - Now these two corridors are just plain old, with a mixture of industrial and residential. It is a reminder of what metro Atlanta used to look like prior to 1980. There is obviously not much commercial, thanks to Interstate 20, with Douglas Boulevard, Chapel Hill Road, Highway 5 and Thornton Road becoming primary destinations. Dallas Highway is dotted with communities that were once new and inexpensive 5 years ago (It has never took off). unfortunately the corridor never grew despite it being close to faster-growing Paulding County. Bankhead Highway, is primarily industrial and two lanes, dotted mobile homes and brownfields, making the corridor unattractive and unsafe for motorists.
So, there you have it. It seems like Douglas County, never really matured compared to the other surrounding Atlanta counties as Cobb, Gwinnett, Cherokee and Fayette. Sure the county has built a mall, only to now have itself compared to the notorious Clayton County ***shiver***. Unfortunately, by the looks of things that may not be enough, as other spokes extending from Atlanta are gaining momentum. Counties like Henry, Paulding, Rockdale and Forsyth are making life difficult for Douglas County in the economic field. If you ask me, I think that Douglas County should be as strong as Cobb and Gwinnett County, or even DeKalb County, being ever so close to downtown Atlanta, Six Flags Theme Park and Hartsfield-Jackson Airport. My question is why is Douglas County still so weak, compared to big three outside of Fulton??????? Douglas County can do a whole lot better.
February 21st, 2007 at 4:50 pmOlive Garden. Ha.
February 22nd, 2007 at 12:59 pmThere are so many little things this county could do to improve itself, it’s shameful. For starters, the Fairburn Rd corridor north of I-20 should be priority one. I work in this corridor and the condition it’s in is unreal. Get rid of Pawn shop after pawn shop, improve the Hospital Dr/Fairburn Rd intersection, however, I think that’s in progress. Douglasville can show how responsible it could be with the hospital Dr widening project. If they are to put a median in the road, let’s streetscape it rather than make it a concrete island, let’s put proper lighting on the corridor, and please put a light at the main entrance into the Kroger Shopping Center. How many more people have to be creamed coming out of there at 5pm because the city can’t install a light? Let’s take that example and apply it to Hwy 5 and Chapel Hill, and when 92 is finished, the same. Little improvements that would atleast add some taste to the community and county as a whole. How about those Metal light posts that Cobb County has at most of their intersections, similar to those in downtown Douglasville. And having the lights sync with each other wouldn’t be bad. This is stuff the city and county can be doing with the tax money instead of trying to replace a jail that just recieved an addition not but 3 years ago. And this could be done now, short term improvements. If any of this is planned, someone let me know. It would be nice.
February 22nd, 2007 at 11:07 pmI agree with the comments made by Joe z. I have lived in the county since `95 and cannot believe the lack of progress regarding traffic conditions. I have often wondered who is responsible for the blatant neglect in this place? Why was Walmart allowed to abandon their stores to build yet another traffic quagmire? I am not from Georgia originally so I have seen how things can be. I don’t know why I stay here but for some reason I have grown to really like this community, flaws and all. I suppose I should try to get involved instead of complain but I don’t know how to do it. I was pleased to see the improvements being made to Hospital Dr., though.
February 23rd, 2007 at 9:35 pmDefcon7,
I too have recently had a less than optimistic view of Douglas County. But over the last few weeks I’ve looked at the bigger picture and did a fair comparison of Douglas County versus others.
I had pretty much made up my mind that I was done with Douglas County. But after doing some research and looking in East Cobb and the Dunwoody/Sandy Springs areas, I’ve decided to stay put right here (at least for the forseeable future). I just couldn’t justify giving up so much just to move to areas that are considered (by some) to be “good”, just because of their reputation of having “great schools.”
I lived in pre-Arbor Place Douglasville and remember what things were like back then. Like a lot of people (including the administrator here) I was sort of caught up in how things “used to be.” But I’ve decided that change is going to happen. And I’ve lived long enough to know by observation that people who do the most complaining about change almost never take action on their complaints.
I can only wonder:
1. Are you a resident of Douglas County?
February 23rd, 2007 at 10:25 pm2. List some of the things that you DO like about Douglas County?
3. Why don’t you move?
Wal-mart Supercenter needs to open where Piggly Wiggly was. The Fairburn Road corridor is dead. It would be a great location, being midway from the already busy existing Super Wal-Marts.
February 24th, 2007 at 8:28 pmI agree with many of the views. Someone had mentioned about bad intersectins and traffic jams. S.R. 92 (Fairburn) is horible trying to turn in and out of westmoreland. Also cherokee is not much better. I think we should al prais the interchange project going on there. From what I hear this is supposed to make the whole highway look much newer and remove old signs and buildings that diteriorate the city. The project in a way will “clean up” some of the old mess. Who doesent like a little spring cleaning. I think we can all agree this projet is a good thing for the city and should do anything possible to keep our roads safe by avoiding hazardous intersections like westmoreland. Cherokee will soon have a traffic light.
May 5th, 2007 at 11:41 pm